For over twenty-five years, it has been known that the honey bee queen exerts her influence over her sister worker caste by means of semiochemicals (N. E. Gary, in Pheromones, M. C. Birch (Ed.) North Holland Publishing Co., London, (1974) pp. 200-221; H. H. W. Velthuis, in Fortschritte der Zoologie, 31, Holldobler/Lindauer (Eds.) Experimental Behavioural Ecology, (G. Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart, N.Y. (1985) pp. 343-357; M. L. Winston, The Biology of the Honey Bee, Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, Mass. (1987)). The most studied and best understood of the queen pheromones have been isolated from her mandibular glands. Honey bee queen mandibular complex (HQMC) is considered to be responsible for the well-known court or retinue formation that includes the licking and antennation of the honey bee queen by workers, by which they recognize the presence of their queen and transfer pheromones from her to other workers, thereby regulating many colony activities (N. E. Gary, Science 133, 1479 (1961); H. H. W. Velthuis, Behaviour 41, 105 (1972); C. G. Butler, R. K. Callow, C. G. Koster and J. Simpson, J. Apic. Res. 12, 159 (1973)). None of the known constituents of this gland (twenty substances have now been identified in HQMC, R. K. Callow, J. R. Chapman, and P. N. Paton, J. Apic. Res. 3, 77 (1964), and Simpson (4)) has been effective in eliciting full retinue behaviour. Other activities, such as suppression of queen rearing and worker ovary development, have been attributed to known mandibular gland constituents, but the responses observed have only been partly induced by these compounds, and then only at concentrations much higher than the queen could supply, implying that pheromone components are missing.
The inventors are aware of the following patents and publications which disclose bee pheromone technology in general and honey bee pheromone technology specifically:
British Patent No. 2,095,998, issued Oct. 13, 1982 to National Res. Dev. Corp.; (STEE-) Steele & Brodie Ltd., discloses honey bee pheromone compositions containing e-citral, geraniol and nerol acid as the active constituents. The use of a synthetic attractant scent (pheromone) ased on (A) (E)-citral or a mixture of (E)- and (Z)-citral, (B) geraniol and (C) nerolic acid, from which nerol and (E,E)-farnesol are practically absent, as attractants to attract a bee colony to a hive or a trap is new. New compositions usable as synthetic pheromones for a colony of honey bees have a basis of (A) E-citral or a mixture of (E)- and (Z)-citral, (B) geraniol and (C) nerolic acid, as well as opt. (D) geranium acid, 9-oxo-2-decenoic acid, honey bee food or another excipient, and are practically free of nerol and (E,E)-farnesol.
Japanese Patent No. 60,184,045, issued Sept. 19, 1985 to Nitto Electric Ind. KK, discloses new optically active acetate(s) for production of carpenter bee sex pheromone.
Mark L. Winston, Keith N. Slessor, Michael J. Smirle and Ali A. Kandil, in J. Chem. Ecol., 1982, Vol. 8, No. 10, pages 1283-8, disclose the influence of a queen-produced substance, 9HDA, on swarm clustering behaviour in the honey bee.
G. Vaitkeviciene, in Khim. Signaly Zhivotn., Sokolov, V. E. (Ed), 1982, pages 168-78, discloses characteristics of deutocerebral neuronal responses of the honey bee to stimulation by queen bee pheromones.
C. G. Butler, R. K. Callow and N. C. Johnston, in Prog. Roy. Soc. Lond. B. 155 417-432, disclose that the methyl ester of g-oxo-decenoic acid is biologically active in inhibiting queen rearing by worker honey bees and development of their ovaries.
Pheromones of Social Bees, John B. Free, Comstock Publishing Assocs. (a Division of Cornell University Press), Ithaca, N.Y.